It is common in the construction industry to use concrete as a primary component of construction members, such as those used for bridge construction, auto garage construction, and other types of commercial and industrial construction. In many such situations, it is necessary for electrical wiring to be passed from one construction member to another, such as between one bridge section and an adjacent bridge section.
It is common for a telescoping coupler assembly, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,563,100, to be positioned between two construction members and thereby provide for passage of electrical wiring between the two construction members. Such a telescoping coupler assembly, however, needs to be positioned between the construction members so as to be relatively movable and thereby able to accommodate for movement of one construction member relative to the other, such as commonly occurs with bridge sections and the like. Other types of coupler assemblies may also be used, including expansion couplers, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,890, as well as deflection couplers, all of which accommodate for movement between the two construction members in which the coupler assembly is mounted. Expansion/compression couplers allow for either expansion or compression of the coupler due to movement of the construction members, whereas a deflection member allows for skewing or deflecting motion between the two construction members.
In all of these coupler assemblies, it is necessary for portions of the coupler assembly to be able to move with respect to each other, which thereby requires that these portions of the coupler assemblies not be encased in concrete in a manner that would prevent such motion.
In the past, it has been common to wrap such coupler assemblies with a wrapping material, such as a sheet-like foam material, fabric, and the like which would allow for concrete when poured about the coupler assembly to harden while still allowing portions of the coupler assembly to move relative to each other. Such wrapping of coupler assemblies has been found to be time consuming and not always efficacious in preventing uncured concrete from contacting such portions of the coupler assembly.